Stairway To Heaven: The Top Of Capri

With finishing an unplanned yacht tour around the Island of Capri, we were dying to explore the rest of this enchanting Island!  But first, our stomachs called!  So the dilemma was: take the funicular to Capri Town, OR skip it altogether and bust up to Anacapri.   Since it was past mid-day now, we decide to head straight up to Anacapri and have some lunch before we venture to Monte Solaro, the highest point of Capri.

There are two options for getting around Capri, the public bus and taxis.  TIP #1: THE BUS WILL COST YOU €1.80 PER RIDE.  ALL TAXIS HAVE A FIXED RATES.  For example, the rate for a taxi from Marina Grande to Anacapri is €20 for 3 people (extra for more people) and it is about a 10-15 minute drive.  While these pink & white convertible Barbie taxis look like fun, we chose to stick to the "loser cruiser" and spend our cash on a delicious lunch!  Any way you choose to get to Anacapri is a riot, the road twists and turns straight up a narrow cliffside!



Anacapri is SO beautiful.  "Ana" means upper in Greek and Anacapri sits at the base of Monte Solaro.  We got off at the first bus stop in Anacapri called "Piazza Vittoria"  and walked down the main pedestrian street; Via Orlandi.  Along this pretty main drag we found a great little restaurant and had a lunch outside in the sunshine.  A half litre of house wine and some "spaghetti alle vongole" and homemade tortellini hit the spot.  It wasn't cheap because nothing on Capri is, but we figured we saved some cash by taking the bus!  

Corallium

While the boys were scheming our next sightseeing adventure, I noticed a coral shop across the street.  I went in and absolutely fell in love with the place.  It is called Corallium Capri and the owner sells only genuine coral here.  He told me that the coral that he uses to make his jewellery is grown around the Bay of Naples and Calabria.  The coral industry is heavily monitored in Italy and sustainable harvesting in the Mediterranean has been in effect since 1994.  Much of the coral Corallium uses is from a coral farm in Calabria from what I understood from the owner.  Here is a great article on the ethics of coral jewellery .  I don't mind paying more for a product I believe is ethically managed, because illegal harvesting in Italy is still happening.

Majolica Tile Bench In A Piazza

After our lunch, we decided to walk around Anacapri.  It is a beautiful town on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean and at this time of year was still a peaceful village.  There are squares full of benches with majolica tiles, walled gardens full of lemon trees and lots of cute cats!

Peeking Through A Garden Gate

Beautiful Churches

Looking Back

Up To The Balcony

The majolica tiles of the Amalfi Coast area entrance me.  They are everywhere.  In fact, there is a beautiful baroque era church of San Michele that has an amazing majolica mosaic floor.  We decide to head to San Michele first because in the winter months the church only excepts visitors until 2:00.  For church website info click here.
The church of San Michele is just off the main street of Via Orlando.  For a €2 entrance fee, you can explore this 1719 Neopolitan style baroque church. There is a wooden boardwalk around the edges of the interior so you can shuffle your way around the floor and look at the exquisite depiction of Adam and Eve getting booted out of the Garden of Eden.  All the animals with their amused expressions are watching the Angel banish the couple out of the garden.  There is even a Unicorn in Eden-who knew!?!  My favourite animal was the lion who has a great expression of "I told those two idiots" on his face!

Priceless Expression!

Where's The Snow?

Our next stop was the high point of our trip; literally! We walked back up Via Orlando to Piazza Vittoria where we got off the bus earlier.  If you walk up the big staircase in the piazza you get to the chairlift entrance that will take up to Capri's highest point: Monte Solaro.
That's right, you can take a chairlift up to the 589m (1,900 foot) summit of Monte Solaro.  For €8 one way or €11 round trip you can glide to the top of the mountain in 15 minutes where you can enjoy the incredible views of Capri, the Bay of Naples and Vesuvius.  At the summit, there is a cafe with a gorgeous terrace and picnic tables spread out amongst the trees.  TIP #2: YOU CAN WALK DOWN THE TRAIL FROM THE TOP OF MONTE SOLARO.  For more info on the Capri chairlift click capriseggiovia.

View From Monte Solaro

This was our plan.  What actually happened was our teen's worst nightmare!  Liam was filming the ride up the chairlift, hit his funny bone on the bar of the chair and dropped his phone.  I was actually relieved because that old phone did nothing but distract Liam from being present in the moment!  But Liam was distraught. So Dad to the rescue.  We sidled up to the bar to grab some coffee and told the barista that our son just dropped his phone on the chairlift.  He talked to the chairlift operator and arranged for Liam to take the chairlift down and see if he could spot where he dropped the phone.  The cable towers are numbered so it shouldn't be that hard, right?  wrong!  

Hiking Down the Mountain

So Liam took the chairlift down by himself to deal with HIS situation (can you smell a teachable moment?) and Luke and I walked down the mountain in glorious sunshine and birdsong.  There was not another soul on the hike down, and it was so beautiful.  The trail spits you out on Via Capodimonte that leads back to the chairlift.  This is the main shopping street of Anacapri and you pass by some beautiful shops selling hand-painted pottery and the famous Carthusia perfume shop of Capri.  We met Liam in Piazza Vittoria and  Luke and Liam rode back up the chairlift (for free) and finally spotted the phone. 

Vincenzo To The Rescue

Meeting with Vincenzo the lift operator at the top, Liam was able to tell him exactly where his phone had landed.  Vincenzo went down the chairlift in front of Liam and managed to jump from his chair to the cable tower, climb down the ladder and to get to where Liam's phone landed.  The phone was miraculously recovered from a freshly tilled garden plot a foot away from a fish pond!  Liam felt very lucky and ended up giving Vincenzo a reward for all the trouble he had gone through to get his phone back.

Gauntlet of Shopping on Via Capodimonte

Meanwhile, while all this was transpiring I went shopping!  I went back down the tiny pedestrian lane of Via Capodimonte and tried to go into the famous perfumery of Capri:  Carthusia.  Carthusia is a perfume house that claims their perfume recipe dates back to the 1300's.  Look for their logo a double-tailed "flower siren".  Unfortunately, when I arrived at Anacapri's Carthusia store the clerk told me they are not yet open for the season.  It seems that everything opens in April on the Amalfi Coast.  I was so disappointed, my heart was set on this perfume. It was not meant to be.
Further down the road a bit I noticed a great ceramic shop.  It is called Il Veliero which means "The Sailing Ship".  The porcelain here is all hand painted on site and the owner showed me his workshop at the back of the store.  I purchased two beautiful pieces that were turquoise blue with lemon motifs, a big bowl and an olive dish❣

Starting Our Decent

It was time we started heading back down to the ferry docks at Marina Grande to catch the last boat back to Sorrento at 5:40 pm.  TIP #3: CHECK THE FERRY SCHEDULE IN CAPRI TO MAKE SURE YOU DONT MISS THE LAST BOAT HOME!  We are very glad we did this because the information for ferry schedules in the pamphlet we had was outdated and we could have missed our last ride off the island.  Which was very tempting because we hadn't checked out Capri town, Villa Jovis or Giardini di Augusto the public gardens in Capri.  That will have to happen on another trip to Capri.

The Road Above

When researching Capri on Pinterest, I came across photos of an amazing staircase above the sea; the Phoenician steps. These 921 steps were the only link between Anacapri and Capri town until the late 1800's when a carriageway was finally built.  The modern two-lane road was built in the 1960's and is a feat of engineering according to Luke who is a surveyor and has built many a cliffside highway.  

Phoenician Steps

"La Scala Fenicia " was thought to have been built by the Phoenicians, but it was actually built by the ancient Greeks around the 7th-6th century BCE  (probably as an escape route to get away from the Ogres).  My legs were starting to get wobbly half way down; remember we just walked down Monte Solaro about an hour ago!  I thought of all the past women living in Anacapri who used to have to come down these steps daily to fetch fresh water and haul it back home in a jug balanced on top their heads!  There were no wells in Anacapri.  They must have had amazing strong legs-Mamma Mia!  Today the steps are in great condition thanks to a complete refurbishment in 1998.  It took us about half an hour to walk down the steps and get to the ferry dock.  TIP #4: STRETCH YOUR LEGS BEFORE AND AFTER THE STEPS!  You will pay for it if you don't...I sure did.

Capri is a very special and magical place.  There is so much to explore here and one day was definitely not enough. As we sailed away from the island we were already dreaming of our return one day.

Good-Bye Beautiful Capri!

    

Video of gliding up the mountain: